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JAKE DANNA STEVENS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Mary Reeder, left, and LaVonne Mikloiche became friends and fellow lumberjill competitors a few years ago after Mrs. Mikloiche began teaching Mrs. Reeder's son how to throw axes.

JAKE DANNA STEVENS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Friends LaVonne Mikloiche, left, of Vandling, and Mary Reeder of Union Dale spend many weekends on the road participating in lumberjill competitions. Here, they take a break from practicing at Mrs. Reeder's home.

Alot of 9-year-old girls take jump ropes, bikes and sidewalk chalk with them when they play outside. LaVonne Mikloiche had an ax.

Now 39, the Vandling wife and mother is part of a growing number of women who participate in competitions that involve throwing axes, chopping wood and cutting logs with chainsaws. Called lumberjills, the female equivalent of lumberjacks, the women travel the world pursuing the hobby and the glory that comes with it.

The skills run in Mrs. Mikloiche's blood. Her father, Chip Arthur of South Gibson, still competes in lumberjack events in his late 60s, and she began competitively ax throwing at age 9. Today she can compete in most events at the competitions.

"(My dad) never pushed me to do it, but it just ... was there and we just did it," she said. "It was just something we all did as a family traveling. And now ... my family, we do it traveling, and my dad still goes with us."

Mrs. Mikloiche has in turn passed down her knowledge to her 15-year-old son, Rick. Her husband, Steve, also participates.

Three years ago, Mrs. Mikloiche was asked to give ax-throwing lessons to Jacob Reeder, now 14, whose parents, John and Mary Reeder of Union Dale, in turn decided to start learning as well. Today, the families travel together to competitions around the country, participating in an average of 36 shows each year from mid-May to mid-October.

"It's just an addiction," said Mrs. Reeder, 44.

But it is a healthy one, Mrs. Mikloiche added. Being able to win takes not only practice but also weight training and cardiovascular exercise.

"Everybody will look at it and go, 'That's easy to do,'" Mrs. Mikloiche said. "A lot of it's just the short burst of the 40-second, 50-second endurance to be able to keep chopping."

It also requires specialized equipment, from axes to bowsaws to modified chainsaws, items that can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Most lumberjacks and -jills aren't loggers but work instead as jewelers, chemists and in other trades. Mrs. Mikloiche is a "lunch lady" for Forest City Regional School District, and Mrs. Reeder works in road maintenance for Herrick Twp. And their fellow competitors come from not only the United States but also Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Mrs. Mikloiche has traveled to Australia three times for competitions and will return again this fall for an event she described as "basically the closest thing you can get to being in the Olympics."

Traveling has its benefits.

"It's neat because you get to see a lot of things," Mrs. Mikloiche said. "Like, my son has traveled ... pretty much this whole eastern seaboard of states. He knows and he's learned a lot and seen a lot, that's for sure."

The people they meet on the competitive circuit are like a big family, they said, and they would do anything for each other.

"When you're competing against people, you're there to compete," Mrs. Mikloiche said. "But in the same hand, you walk back to your vehicle and you're friends and family."

That family includes more women than it had even a few years ago, when Mrs. Mikloiche said competitions had trouble filling spots in the women's division. Mrs. Reeder said they knew about 10 to 15 women competing when she started three years ago. These days, about 25 to 30 women compete on a regular basis in the New York State Lumberjacks Association, for which Mrs. Mikloiche is treasurer.

Most women were raised in the lumberjack world, Mrs. Mikloiche said, but others these days come from colleges where they competed with school teams.

"Now we actually have our own days sometimes devoted to us that we can actually do pretty much all the events that there are anymore," Mrs. Mikloiche said.

The competition itself has changed for women, too. Years ago, women only used to throw axes or do Jack-and-Jill crosscut, in which a man and woman together saw a log. That was all women were allowed to do, Mrs. Mikloiche said.

But now, women have their own divisions or participate against men on a handicap basis, which might involve giving women smaller pieces of wood or requiring them to make fewer cuts than the men. Mrs. Mikloiche and Mrs. Reeder said they are glad women can have their own division now.

"We pay the same amount for our equipment," Mrs. Mikloiche said. "Our equipment isn't cheaper; it isn't smaller. It's all the same size. And (men) can go to a show and get paid $500 for first place, and our first place is $100. It's not really fair. (Now) it's coming up to par where everything is kind of becoming equal, so it's not as bad."

They also face the same dangers in working with equipment whose blades, as Mrs. Mikloiche pointed out, can be so sharp a person could shave with them. As she and Mrs. Reeder demonstrated on a recent afternoon with tools in hand, wood chips and saw dust can go flying as axes and saws cut with ease. And then there were the axes Mrs. Reeder threw toward a target 20 feet away, striking it dead center.

Competitors wear protection like chain mail and shin guards, but injuries still can occur. Mrs. Mikloich recalled a time several years ago when she cut her foot while pole felling but finished the event and placed despite the injury.

"It was real muddy and raining that day, and after I got done chopping the front side of the pole, I lifted my foot out of the mud and it just gushed blood," she said, adding that she received nine stitches as a result.

Competing and the camaraderie between the lumberjacks and -jills keep them coming back though. Mrs. Mikloiche would like to one day place first for all events at the lumberjill championships in Boonville, N.Y., where she previously was second runner-up for all events, while Mrs. Reeder hopes to continue competing and do her best.

"When you travel together and do pretty much everything together ... that's what you do," Mrs. Mikloiche said. "You become very close."

Contact the writer: cheaney@timesshamrock.com

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